Well begun is Half done
by tinyscribbles
Summary: I was feeling very much done with having fanfic ideas pop up and then being too lazy to write them down. So I did. Here, have a Merlin University AU with an OC. Flames will be used to toast marshmallows, yum. Also the photo is from Ep3 S3. Arthur just looks so forlorn, it's great! (The dang photo isn't showing because I am notoriously terrible with technology, oops)
1. The tea incident

A/N: So I'm not actually sure whether I'm using this thing right, but there's not harm trying it out and hey, if I'm trying it out I might as well write a story right? Also, as is the proper etiquette, here's a nice disclaimer for you

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN MERLIN OR ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT like characters and scenes and concepts THEY ARE THE BBC'S BASED ON HE STORIES OF GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH ALL I OWN IS MY CURRENTLY UNNAMED OC, have a nice day :)

I'm supposed to be writing my CV right now, shhh, don't tell. But like always, when I'm trying to be productive, a tiny little thing comes knocking on the back door of my mind, not unlike how Gandalf knocked on Bilbo Baggins' door, and then they just go BOOM and turn into dwarves who barrel in and eat the minimal concentration I was able to muster before.

Someone tell me to shut up and get on with the story

* * *

OH ALSO (N.b this little section was added on the 1st of April 2015) MY OC HAS A NAME NOW SHE'S CASSANDRA :)

* * *

Given that this was her 17th day at university, and she was already struggling to keep up with the number of research assignments her professor was loading onto her, _and_ she had woken up 11 minutes late, thus jeopardizing her chances of catching the bus to her first class of the day, _AND _she couldn't find her socks having been in the rush that she was in, you couldn't _really_ blame X (A/N:NOW CASSANDRA) for spilling her flask of tea onto someone's toast at 8.13 in the morning.

But then you probably could; it was her own fault for choosing to study Medicine, hence the amount of work.

She'd been in the dormitory kitchen/common room; there was a fridge and a stove and a sofa, with a few sofas and a television. Wifi was free, and there were a few computers, so naturally every student currently residing in the dorms was there night and day. X (A/N: CASSANDRA) poured boiling water from the communal kettle into her stripy blue mug. Having put the teabag in and mushed it around, nibbled on a breakfast biscuit and finished preparing her tea, X (A/N: CASSANDRA) turned around in a rushed fashion and promptly swung her cup of scalding hot tea into an unexpecting girl benignly eating some toast.

The dark, curly-haired girl whose breakfast had so rudely been disrupted was incredibly understanding in the matter, and even helped X (A/N:CASSANDRA) clean up the mess on the floor.

"No, no, don't worry yourself about it, it's only tea, honestly, I never liked this jumper anyway." the girl reassured her. Nonetheless, strings of apologies flew out of X's (A/N: CASSANDRA'S) mouth, and after reducing the initial damage caused by the spillage, X was once again on her busy way.

Once she was safely on the route 58 bus which would deposit her just outside her college, she replayed the events of the morning in her mind. The nice girl whom she had doused in tea had introduced herself as Guinevere- "my friends call me Gwen"- Smith (A/N: Blacksmith's daughter? Calling her Gwen Blacksmith would be a bit of a mouthful, and it'd probably sound weird too.). Had she just made a friend?

"Weird way to make friends", she thought, handing the bus driver her pass, "spilling scalding tea on them," In her 2 weeks and 3 days at College, she insisted to herself that she was "simply too busy to socialise", much to the disappointment of her family, and immersed herself into making schedules and buying textbooks.

"You're entering the best years of your life!" they'd say. "live a little, go on."

She'd always reply with the same thing, "I'll live when I have time. Once I've learned how to help others live too."

There wasn't much that they could say to that.

X's (A/N: CASSANDRA'S) thoughts dwelled on Gwen's unexpected kindness for a while longer, until she arrived at the Medical block of the campus. Just as she turned the door handle, she felt the door handle turn almost of its own accord, and a scrawny boy with black hair and impossibly large ears fell out.

* * *

So, tell me what you thought! Yes, the boy with impossibly large ears is Merlin, the other characters will be introduced soon. I might not be able to update this very often, I have my GCSEs coming up so you might have to wait until mid-summer. If you even want to read it. If it's rubbish then do tell me. The title is a quotation from Aristotle. He had a great mind, but unlike so many great ancient Greeks he was sexist and homophobic. Shame, but Nobody's perfect (Geddit? Greeks, Odyssey, 'Nobody?! Okay sorry nvm)

P.S: Oh also I'm not at Uni yet, so tell me if it's not realistic. I'll do my best to change it if it isn't (realistic, that is). Feel free to PM me, or just write it in the reviews.

P.P.S: You can tell I'm new to this whole weird fanfiction writing world- I can't think of a name for my OC, augh. I'll come up with something soon. This is really half-baked, you can tell.

P.P.P.S: Oh the irony of the title.


	2. And books flew everywhere

A/N: HELLO AGAIN FRIENDS 'tis I, the incredibly unprepared pretend author person. In case you're wondering, I'm revising Geography this time, emphasis on the "revising" So I've though if a name for X; how about Cassandra? You could shorten it to Cass, Sandra, 'Ra, 'the big C', whatever suits your fancy. Can you guess which Merlin character would call her those names? Well if you can you must be incredibly imaginative 'cause I haven't though of that yet. Typical me. And as usual:

DISCLAIMER: I still don't own Merlin. It's the BBC's. All I own is my OC, and she's just a concept really.

I've also made a couple of edits to chapter 1, because I realised there were a few plot holes and that you couldn't see what was in my head, so I should probably explain some things, which I have now done. I'm going to be actively reviewing the chapters as I go along too, so don't be surprised if stuff is added. It's not a glitch, it's just me.

Onwards to the story, noble readers!

* * *

"Oh my goodness, are you alright? Are you hurt-" Cassandra all but fell to her knees worriedly, prodding the unsuspecting boy's shoulders.

"No, no, I'm fine, this is normal for-"

"Honestly, I didn't hurt you, did I? Can you move your feet-"

"Yes, yes, I can move my feet, thanks" he struggled to stand up, but Cassandra pushed him back down, now examining his ankles.

She began to ramble "Why is it always me? I wake up late, then I can't find my socks, I trip over my shoelaces and spill steaming tea all over some poor girl, broke my mug, then I nearly miss the bus, now this, what did I do to deserve this? Why does Karma hate me? Move your feet." She said, addressing the now slightly unnerved lad lying on the floor. "Can you feel your toes?"

He corners of his mouth turned down, and he raised his hands defensively. "Really, it's fine. I am absolutely 100% okay, I just need to deliver these books to Professor Monmouth, (A/N: tee hee) he is not a patient man, now can you please just let me up."

Cassandra awkwardly obliged, and helped him haphazardly collect the stack of books he was carrying. He stood his slim frame up. "You seem to apologise a lot for someone who didn't do anything wrong." She opened her mouth to say sorry, but shut it quickly so as not to let the word escape.

"My name's Cassandra. Can I help you with those books, uh..." She slowly got up ("Damn, those books are heavy" she thought) and handed them back to the black haired boy. He took them and wobbled a bit before he regained his balance.

"Merlin."

Merlin. The name suited him well.

"Right, yes, Merlin. Actually, I should probably help you with those," she gestured to the pile of books. "They look pretty heavy."

"Um, no, I'm alright, thank you, Cassandra." said Merlin. "I'll be on my way now. Thanks again for the help."

He turned to walk away, stumbling slightly under the weight of numerous volumes. Cassandra headed onwards to the door to her laboratory (A/N: Do medical students learn in labs? Help me I don't know I'm not there yet!), and went in, but a thought swooped into her head just as she did so, so swung said head out of the door again to call out.

"You seem to thank people a lot for favours they didn't do, Merlin!"

He paused momentarily, chuckled, then carried on, his back slightly straighter and his head held a little higher. Cassandra could've sworn that he grinned swiftly at her as he turned the corner.

* * *

A/N: Oh no, it's beginning to seem like this is a Merlin X OC fic! I can assure you, it's not. Probably. Like I said I am unprepared and a little useless in this field. But as far as I know, this friendship will remain purely platonic. Probably. I'm standing at a fork in the path here, like "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood". Good old Robert Frost must have meant that the path split in two, but there's just so many dang potential paths to take, "and sorry I could not travel both" I have to pick one sooner or later. "Path less travelled by"? Perhaps. A great perhaps. (Also I do not own any of the illustrious Robert Frost's poems just putting that out there. Nor do I own that quotation from that dead person about perhapses. It was someone's last words. Can't remember for the life of me whose, sorry.)

Has it sped up yet? I hate slow moving fanfictions, they feel like treacle, but alas I as the author know the story thus cannot fathom the speed of this tale. Soz about it.

Review if you want, no pressure. Tschüss!


	3. Old family, new friends?

A/N: does anyone even read these?

So yes, I know, I'm supposed to be studying (which is _clearly_ a short form of "student dying") but as always I am being a lazy bum and procrastinating. Someone needs to tell me to stop, it's like daydreaming on paper but not paper it's actually on a word processor. I am evidently extremely prone to daydreaming.

However, Cassandra is super productive and always gets stuff done so I'll get on with the story ASAP. But first, here's a disclaimer:

DISCLAIMER: Merlin is the BBC's. Not mine. BBC's. Not mine. BBC's, not mine. Got that? Now let's carry on.

* * *

The problem; Cassandra was feeling homesick. The solution; videochat her family.

The previously black screen flashed open and she saw her family members, all five of them, including the baby, smiling at her so widely that it almost looked like they had constipation. Even the cat was there, and that cat was _never _there. It was hard not to smile at them, looking so jovial, so that's what she did. She smiled for what felt like the first time in days.

"Hi."

A cacophony of voices flooded her tiny dorm room, and she just sat looking at them until they quietened. Her mother was the first to speak, in a lilting Greek accent;

"Our Cassie"

"Mum, I've told you time and time again, it's just Cassandra. Always has been, always will be."

Cassandra had been one of those babies that never spoke. Her family had been worried about her, calling doctors, speech therapists, child psychologists in an attempt to make her talk. Until one day, out of the blue, baby Cassandra said "May I please have a chocolate biscuit, Mummy?" to the great shock of her poor mother standing on a ladder pruning the tree in the garden. It was a dangerous situation, but thankfully the only broken thing ended up being the shears (they'd gotten stuck in the tree.)

"Cassie, I've told _you _time and time again, I will refuse to call you anything else. Tell me how life is at college! Is the work okay? Are you keeping up alright? Have you made any new friends? Have you got a boyfriend? Oh my dear, you never socialise! Has _anything_ happened at all?

It was clear where Cassandra got her rapid-fire talking style from.

"Yes, yes, yes, no and definitely no. I managed to spill tea on someone though. And break my special mug. I also pulled a door that someone was about to push from the other side and they fell out."

The mismatch of people on the other side sighed. Some shook their heads. Her younger brother stared her boredly.

"Typical Cassie" said her sister.

"Always the clumsy one, aren't you" guffawed her father.

"Hablebluhble" said the baby.

"Anyway, how are things with you all? Have you had any football tournaments, Sammy? Did they go well?"

"Yeah." Sammy never said much. It was probably just as well, or the noise that the others produced would have increased even more. He didn't like talking and that was that. Cassandra didn't push him.

"Okay"

The baby gurgled, and the conversation slowly began again. They talked for some time, until Cassandra noticed that it was nearly midnight. With that, she said goodbye and moved the mouse to the "end Call" button, but just as she was about to terminate the chat, her mother reappeared on the screen, holding the sleeping baby.

"Cassie, darling? Maybe it's an idea to talk to the girl you said you'd spilt tea on. She introduced herself, didn't she? Might be an opportunity to make some friends. We love you, sweetheart, take care."

And the call ended.

* * *

The sun shone through the curtains of her dorm room, and a small, dark haired girl lay perfectly still in her bed, pondering. Cassandra was musing about her mother's last comment last night, about talking to the tea-stained girl. She mused for a while, then suddenly jumped out of bed and began dressing. As she pulled on her socks, she tried to reassure herself that her mother's idea wasn't _that_ bad, and it couldn't be too terrible to reintroduce herself, without the tea this time. As she rummaged in her drawer for a clean T-shirt, she tried to reassure herself that bad first impressions weren't the end of the world, and if they were at rock-bottom before, they could only improve, couldn't they? As she carefully tied her shoelaces, she tried to reassure herself that if Guinevere- no,_ Gwen_, she reminded herself- was nice enough once, she would be mice enough again, especially now that she wasn't being marinated in a leafy beverage with two sugars and a little milk. Alas, Cassandra was a realist (not an optimist, not a pessimist) and it didn't work, but she gathered what little courage she had, and made her way down to the common room anyway.

It was nearly deserted when she got there, except for the guy with the guitar, perched on the windowsill. He was always there, strumming away soulfully, winking at the besotted, starry-eyed girls who came to watch. Cassandra had been one of them once, hoping for some entertainment, but found that his music was lacklustre and just for show. He wasn't bad-looking, she thought, not really. Just incredibly cocky, always flipping his long hair. Once he'd got drunk and tried to crowd-surf out of the window on the trees. A friend of his had been forced to catch him by the ankles as he dangled outside. It resulted in a warning from the supervisor, but he always maintained that it was worth it. Ass.

He grinned at her as she walked to an empty table and sat down, opening her book, but when she didn't respond to his advances he put his guitar down and came over to her. She looked up, smiled, and carried on reading. They sat in silence for a while, until out of the blue, he said-

"You were the girl who spilled tea over Gwen yesterday, aren't you?"

If looks could kill.

"You don't talk much. I saw you."

"I'm not surprised, you must see everything playing that banjo of yours at all hours. Don't you have any classes?"

"Oh, so she _does _speak. You've got a mouth on you, you have. My name's Gwaine. With whom am I pleasantly conversing?"

"Cassandra"

"Cass? Sandra? Sandy? 'Dra? The big C?"

She shot another venomous look his way.

"My name's Cassandra. Just Cassandra. No Variations."

"Alright, 'The Big C' it is. No point protesting, it is stuck."

"Listen, I'm waiting for Gwen. I need to apologise for the unfortunate event formally. If you know if she's coming down here, please tell me. If not, for the love of all that is good and pure in this world, please just leave me alone to read. Thank you."

"Okay, chill. She gets here at 12.00, the gang's going out for lunch and bowling. You should come with me, it'd give you plenty of time to apologise."

Cassandra was glad that her family wasn't present. She could almost hear them screaming to "SAY YES TO HIM! YOU MIGHT NOT BE SUCH A RECLUSE ANYMORE SAY YES SAY YES SAY YES." She hated it when her mind went into family mode.

She sighed. "Alright. Lunch and bowling it is."

She pretended to ignore his silent celebration, and carried on reading while she waited for the "gang".

* * *

A/N: speech is not my forte. I hope it wasn't too OOC? Tell me if it was, please please please! Also does University accommodation have a supervisor? \\_(°~°)_/

I put two sections in this time, ooh. It was moving too slowly, I needed it to pick up the pace a little. So now my lovely OC Cassandra (Joel Stein's writing style is great in his Time magazine "awesome columns". He and Time magazine own those, not me. How many disclaimers do I have to add?!) is waiting with Gwaine for the rest of them. She doesn't know that Merlin's going to be there, so that should hopefully be fun. Adios!


	4. Bowled over

A/N: So has anyone noticed that in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, any time that Scout feels uncomfortable, Lee uses figurative language directly relating to the sea? There was the simile about the underwater swimmer when Atticus "One-Shot Finch" was about to shoot the mad dog, Tim Johnson, and when she was talking about her cousin, Francis, she said that he gave her the feeling of settling on the seabed, and there was another one but I can't remember it, it was just about the sea. What does it mean!? These can't be a coincidence.

And now, the disclaimer;

DISCLAIMER: Merlin is the BBC's television series based on the stories of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who aimed to reduce the discrimination that the Angles, Saxons, Romans, Vikings and later, unbeknownst to him as of yet, the Normans had had against the native Britons (the surviving descendants with the most "true" British blood are the Welsh.)

Coolio. Let's go :)

* * *

And so, they waited, Cassandra reading her long and boring novel, and Gwaine fast asleep on the table. His attempts at conversation with the girl had been entirely fruitless, and so he prudently gave up - one of the most practical ideas he had had in a long time.

When Guinevere finally arrived, she had to pull Gwaine up by the collar and drop him to the floor to wake him. When he stayed asleep (or rather, badly acted at staying asleep), she put an ice cube down his shirt. Her expression shouted that this was a common occurrence with him, what with his wild behaviour at all hours of the night. Cassandra wondered whether Gwaine was really a student at the university at all.

His expression was like that of a kicked puppy "_Why_? Gwen, you're meant to be my friend, why?"

"You brought that upon yourself. I knew you were awake, but I didn't think that you did. We have to go now, or we'll miss our slot for bowling. Everyone else is already there."

Gwaine looked at Cassandra expectantly,"Come on."

"Oh, are you coming too? Great! My name's Guinevere, but my friends call me Gwen," said Gwen distractedly. She was tapping her foot now, looking at her watch.

"Yeah, I, uh, spilt tea all over you yesterday. I'm Cassandra, my friends call me _Cassandra_." There was a little extra force in the last word, quite clearly directed at Gwaine, who shrugged.

"I'm still going to call you "The Big C." Like I said, it's stuck."

And with that they turned to leave, Gwaine only running back quickly to get his infernal guitar.

* * *

"So how do you know Gwaine?" inquired Gwen, as she reversed her little white Fiat out of the college parking spot. "I mean, you two don't really seem like a likely couple, if you don't mind me saying. Not that you aren't cute, you're very cute together." she added hurriedly.

Any rational reply was drowned out by his. "She was just swept away by my serenade, and since then she's been head over heels for me Gwen, just lost in love. It's all in the guitar." he patted his guitar lovingly.

"_No_, we're not together and _no_, he's just always playing his guitar in the common room. He's like a bee, buzzing away, oh what's the word? Incessantly. Anyway, I came down to the common room to find you." Cassandra took a deep breath. " I wanted to introduce myself, and apologise formally for the whole tea incident."

"Really, Cass, it's OK. Trust me. It was just tea, at least it wasn't sulphuric acid or something."

Cassandra didn't want to correct the kind girl. An awkward silence ensued.

* * *

When they arrived at the bowling alleys, Cassandra saw a large group of guys waiting to get their bowling shoes from the spindly man at the desk. She questioned her actions. They did not seem like the sort of people she normally felt comfortable hanging out with. There was still time to run to the car and hide. From there she could find a map to the nearest bus station on her phone and- _no_. She could do this. So what if they appeared intimidating? She could handle that. Amd she knew sje would never forgive herself if she left now. Cassandra composed herself, and hurried after Gwen and Gwaine, who had almost reached the door.

They were greeted with loud calls and beckoned by multiple hands. Quizzical eyes turned towards Cassandra as they say down on the moulded plastic seats around the monitor where they would enter their names.

"Everyone, this is Cassandra. Cassandra- Arthur, Lancelot, Leon, Percival, Elyan, and Merlin. Elyan is my brother."

Cassandra's eyes followed as Gwen pointed. She was never going to be able to keep all their names in order, only ever having had one or two friends herself. Maybe two and a half. (A/N:! That was a tumblr post. Credit to the OP!)

"So are you and Gwaine..." Percival inquired. Cassandra was snapped out of her thoughts by the large lad's question.

"No, really, why does everyone think tha- oh." Her sentence was cut short when she noticed that Gwaine was mouthing _"Yes, we are"_ rather exuberantly next to her. She shut her eyes and rubbed her temple. "Gwaine is just delusional."

"You love me really."

Merlin decided to spare her the discomfort of replying. "You apologised for me falling and tried to diagnose me with a torn tendon, yesterday, didn't you? Outside the Lab?"

"Yes, that would be me. I would say sorry, but if I want to work on not doing that then I'd better not." she grinned.

"Are you one of Professor Gaius' students?"

"Yeah. Are you?"

A tall muscly sort of boy got up and began typing names into the system. He smiled at Cassandra and typed "Cass." It didn't seem to her that they were going to back down any time soon.

"No, he's my uncle. I help him out sometimes. Gwen is a student though. She studies Biochem in the lab next door, we've been friends for ages."

"So what do you study then, Cassandra?" interjected a dark haired guy. Lancelot perhaps, she mused.

"I'm in my first year, doing Medicine. What about you?"

"Geology. All I can say is thanks goodness for clearing!" he laughed. "Arthur's doing business studies, Elyan's studying accountancy, Percy's doing linguistics, Gwaine's supposed to be doing law and Leon's in his final year doing computer science."

"So you are taking a course then. I thought you somehow just lived on campus like a hobo, busking."

Gwaine widened his eyes and put a hand to his chest in mock offence.

"Oh no, Leon help," muttered the large boy at the monitor, first whacking the screen with his massive hand, then looking pleadingly at a curly haired guy.

"What've you done now, Percy?" asked Leon sternly, rising from his seat to inspect the situation. He looked the most sensible of them all. Cassandra made a mental note of both their names.

"I'll go and get someone from the front desk, they'll know what do. What would you all do without me, eh?" Gwen began navigating herself through the recently arrived tangle of schoolchildren behind them.

"Wait, I'll come with you," a smartly dressed boy hastened behind her, shooting a quick but sharp glance at Lancelot, who was also rising out of his chair. Elyan scanned the scene, and began whistling in what he thought was an inconspicuous fashion a few seconds later. Cassandra looked to Gwaine with raised eyebrows. He looked back, for once fully serious, with a look that said _"I'll explain later." _Lancelot looked a little disheartened. Percival and Leon carried on tinkering.

* * *

A/N: Okie dokie. Chapter 4 is a go! I know you lot are reading this, please please pretty please review! Comstructive criticism is very much welcomed, and if you feel the need for flames; there's more than enough marshmallows for s'mores for everyone.

How am I supposed to give them pronouns? Are they boys, guys, lads (ew no not lads) chaps, fellows, men? Augh.

I watched Big Hero 6 four times. I need to stop. I spent half an hour trying to figure out how Gogo's bike worked, but I got nothing. Wasabi's laser thing must work with that super cool solid light thingy they worked out how to do. I'm turning into Fred. Arriverderci!


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